Bowden Changes Tune -- Will He Change Call?

September 1, 1988|By Larry Guest of the Sentinel Staff

Before last year's FSU-Miami scrum, Bobby Bowden vowed he wouldn't go for two at do-or-die time, but then, as you know, he did and fell one point shy. This year? ''I'm saying I will go for it,'' says Bobby. ''But remember that I'm not too reliable.'' That clears that up. . . . Printing salesman Scott Steinman, U-Florida grad now living in Bozeman, Mont., is so orange-and-blue his Montana license plates say GATORS, he has a bird named Gator and his business card says Gator. Imagine his surprise when the little college team in his new town was booked to play Florida on Saturday. Steinman, familiar with M-State Bobcat football, says he shudders to think what will happen Saturday. ''I immediately reflected on the Florida/North Texas State game, a milestone in Gator scoring history 11 touchdowns. The Bobcats won't be so fortunate,'' writes Steinman. Bob Gregorka, oddsmaker at the Frontier in Vegas, agrees. He researched the mismatch at our request and said it would be ''ridiculous for us to consider setting a line on a game like that. If we did, it would be something like 52 points. Even that wouldn't be high enough, but you can set a line only so high.''

Responding to a question at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in St. Louis last week, baseball commish Peter Ueberroth listed Orlando among the prospects for possible expansion. It was perhaps the first unsolicited public acknowledgement by the commish of a high-level interest in Orlando. Insiders say National League prez Bart Giamatti and Astros owner John McMullen quietly have been touting to the commish Orlando as the best Florida future site for baseball. . . . Bumper snicker spotted on, appropriately, the Beeline Expressway: ''Bees hum because they don't know the words.'' . . . First nomination just in for the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Former Florida Gators quarterback Larry Ochab, now an Orlando real estate peddler, is all atwitter over recent arrival of his first offspring. Named the little guy Taylor Daniel Ochab. That's uh, well -- T.D. Ochab. Think how embarrassing if he turns out to be a cornerback. . . . Alabama surely the only state with a father-daughter-son sports writer team. Veteran columnist Bill Lumpkin anchors the sports sections of the Birmingham Post-Herald, daughter Kathy covers sports for the Montgomery Advertiser and son Bill III is sports editor of the Huntsville News. ''Hotels go nuts when Bill the Third and I check in,'' says Lump. ''The New Orleans Hyatt still hasn't figured out which one of us owes what.''

When football coach Mack Brown jumped from Tulane to North Carolina last winter, his family stayed behind in New Orleans to complete the school year. The wife and kids flew in, though, for the Tar Heels' spring game, and Mack's sixth-grade daughter promptly announced some boys in her class back in New Orleans wanted her to get an autograph for them. Brown recalls feeling flattered and said he'd be happy to sign something for her school chums. ''Oh, not from you, Dad,'' she said. ''From J.R. Reid.'' . . . The blind scales of justice may need to take a peek. Lawrence Taylor was sidelined by the NFL four weeks for becoming a repeat cocaine abuser. Angel Myers was benched four years by the Olympics for taking perhaps only birth control pills or, at worst, steroids. . . . In newest Playboy, Giants skip Roger Craig joins Astros chauvinist Bob Knepper in dumping on the notion of a female umpire. ''I just don't think women should be umpires, period,'' said Craig. ''I have three daughters -- I'd kill any player who ever called a daughter of mine the names I've been called by umpries and the names I've called them.''

INFALLIBLE FORECAST (back for another season despite the pickets and protest groups): FSU over Miami by 8, Florida over Montana State by 223, UCF over Bethune by 4, Delaware State over FAMU by 7, Boston College over USC by 6 in Upset Special, LSU over A&M by 3 points, NCAA over A&M by 3 years, Clemson over Va. Tech by 21, Georgia over Tenn. by 4, Kentucky over C. Mich. by 11, Ole Miss over Memphis by 3, Nebraska over Utah St. by 147, S. Carolina over N.C. by 13, Eagles over Bucs by 10, Bears over Dolphins by 7.

MY NEIGHBOR WOLFGANG sez hindsight is what his missus needed before buying that pair of jeans.